Working the Kindle 2
I’ve been giving some thought to the Kindle for a few months, and the announcement of the new Kindle 2 in February provided a good moment for me to jump on-board.
My e-reader arrived on Wednesday, so my experience so far is limited, but I have a few observations. First, a long setup.
I haven’t read printed books in some time. Aside from a few keepsake books that have special personal value, or copies that get a fresh reading regularly, I’ve largely divested my book collection, giving hundreds of volumes to charity and the public library. I don’t feel comfortable with the resources required to create a physical book, and I’ve downsized my stuff and my personal space to support a more compact, (hopefully) environmentally friendly lifestyle. While the creation and consumption of digital content also has an environmental impact, I feel marginally more comfortable with that, and I purchase carbon offsets.
My reading, up to now, has been listening, mainly: audiobooks. I have a monthly subscription with Audible.com, and I’ve listened to dozens of audiobooks while in the gym or out walking. (Disclosure: I have a relationship with Audible, as a contract narrator.)
Audiobooks have a number of advantages, but there are some genres that don’t work for me in the audiobook format. Intricate histories are hard for me to follow, probably because I listen to audiobooks while doing other activities, like working out. And Audible’s library currently offers around 50,000 products. The bestsellers are there, and so are the classics, but the catalog isn’t deep, and I’ve been adding more books to my Amazon wishlist in the past two years, reluctantly conceding that I’d need to buy them in book form.
So, enough scene-setting. A few observations about the Kindle 2:
- * Amazon’s store currently offers about 250,000 titles. The first thing I noticed was that every book I’ve dumped into my wishlist is available for the Kindle. It’s surprising how deep a 250,000 volume “library” can be.
- * The buy-and-download-instantly model is almost an exact replica of the iTunes experience, by which I mean, it’s perfect. Buying books is so simple, delivery is effortless, and the result is: I spent $50 on books in the first 20 minutes of Kindle ownership; that makes it dangerous, too, for people like me who like to consume books.
- * To think of the Kindle as simply an e-book reader is to misunderstand the power of the device and its capabilities. Andy Ihnatko still has the best piece on the Kindle, and its true killer app: the Sprint EVDO connection, coupled with a (simple) web browser. This is a simple Internet device, and there’s a lot of power in that.
- * The new design is sleeker, cooler, still not perfect. The five-way toggle switch is annoying from an ergonomic standpoint, the “next page” buttons closer to the bottom of the device than I’d like (I hold it closer to the top, for some reason.) E-ink has to flash the page to display it, and that, combined with the delay is bothersome, but not greatly so. After reading for several minutes, you kind of forget about it.
- The experience of reading on a Kindle is immersive, more so than I expected. It takes some time but the device does seem to melt into the background, in the way that a physical book does. The interface doesn’t strain my eyes, and the reader is light enough to hold and substantial enough to feel like a small book.
I like physical books, but I’m not interested in turning them into a fetish. They aren’t inherently better or more pure than any other kind of book; that’s entirely a matter of personal preference, and I refuse to debate anyone over their personal choice in this matter.
For me, the Kindle is a new way to transport and enjoy books and it has a lot of potential as an always connected Internet device (within Sprint territory).
Note: I bought the Kindle 2 with my own money. I don’t accept review copies of items; actually, I’m not an A-list blogger, so I never get offered review copies of anything.
Great review, I'm think I might have to pick one up after reading your entry. I was wondering if any affluent library systems were picking them up and sure enough, Sparta Public Library (SPL) NJ purchased a few, and the waiting list is two months; it sure makes a swift and inexpensive alternative to interlibrary loan.
Oddly enough the Amazon/Kindla Terms of Service prevents a user who wishes to “sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party.” So far Amazon is mum on the topic and they don't seem to be raising a fuss with libraries, it'll be interesting to see how Amazon irons out the concept of popular lending. Oh Andrew Carnegie, if you could see us now!
My wife gave me a Kindle for Christmas, I got it in February, and I love it. Here's my favorite thing: like many book lovers, I'm easily seduced or almost seduced by a book in a bookstore. On the other hand, I often find I have an inspiration when I'm not in a bookstore (“I'd love to reread 'The Brothers Karamazov”!), then have second thoughts when I have the book in my hand. Over the years, I've bought lots of books I never got around to reading, so I pretty frequently talk myself out of buying things (I tell myself this is a book I want to have read, not a book I want to read).
The Karamazov example is real — I've always thought of it as my favorite book from college, and for the last decade or so I've meant to reread it. But when I stand there in the store with the book and $15 in my hand, I think “O, come on, you'll never actually get around to reading this” and I put it down. WIth the Kindle, I ordered the sample when I had the inspiration (in the case of BK the sample must have been 50 or 60 pages) and it was clear when I got to the end of the sample and actually bought the book that I had the momentum to read it. I've read or reread several books on this basis.
I find the reading experience to be just fine. One complaint is that I'm nervous about how much I have to use the 5-way navigator. There's no alternative to it — if it breaks, the unit is junk — and I'm not sure how pleasant the repair process would be. I'm always a little nervous when I use the device (unlike my Palm Pilot, say, which I toss around pretty carelessly).
Actually, navigation in general feels pretty 1st generation on the Kindle. Using tables of contents feel like you're clumsily clicking through barely converted text. Compared to navigating on an iPod Classic, for example, it's the difference between an old text-based computer game like “Adventure” and something more modern.
That aside, though, I'm a very happy KIndle user, and I could imagine using something like this for a long time. It doesn't feel like a gimmick to me, but like something that could comfortably fit into my life.
Peace,
Mark.
i haven't read this book but i'm very sure that it is a good one.. The title is very catchy.. i like to have that book..